The Photography Story They Never Tell You

Photography has
this amazing feeling it leaves you having, when a good photo comes to life,
frozen in moment. Thats what attracts you when you first fall in love with it.
Your eyes keep wondering looking for that sweet spot, that golden sun ray, that
teardrop moment or that grin if the burst out laughter is not forthcoming, that
small moment changes everything.

My story in
photography is not any different from many of us who are barely starting out.
You get inspired by someone, from then on its a constant daily dose of
stalking that artist to find out what gear he uses, where he likes to hang out
when he likes to shoot, what he likes to shoot, it becomes an obsession.
Eventually you realize there other even better photographers out there, who
have even better gear and travel to even more amazing places and their images
become part of your bucket list of things you would want to capture.

So after all the
admiration phases were done I moved on to the reality that many beginning in
photography encounter, the reality that it has never been a rosy business.
Getting equipment is always the first huddle. They will tell you to start with
your phone , but that gets old when you realize your phone cant take that
night shot you saw or zoom in at 200 meters. So you decide to get your first
camera after months of saving and a lot more borrowing. Here the battle of
brands come in and you go with popular opinion and you become the obsessed
#Team{InsertBrand} ambassador. You now graduate to become an Amateur, you have
no idea how to get that client yet, it hasnt gotten to that stage yet, so you
start with shooting flowers in your backyard, or your earphones on your reading
table next to your Macbook with a coffee mug next to it and graduate gradually
to portraits of a friend or a younger sibling.

Later you come
to the realization that you werent getting as many likes or youre a
great photographer compliments in your months old Instagram and Facebook
pages. Here is when you start your research on what youre doing wrong.
Research engulfs you. You start learning a lot more of what you can do with
your DSLR, at this stage youre shooting less, reading more, the google student
you become. YouTube tutorials, pdf pages, and screen shots anything you can save
for later. And so the journey begins into the boring side of this business. You
will try so hard to replica every fantastic shot you have seeing of your ever
growing list of photographers you look upto, realizing how hard it is not only
shooting but editing. You cannot afford that editing software, you torrent it
making sure it has a crack key. For every shot you take, it takes equally as
long to get it finished and ready for the world to share and not get credit for
it.

If you get stuck
in why people dont like what youre shooting, you start questioning yourself. Self-doubt
becomes your daily fight. Most people who love your work will probably never
critique it. You need those naysayers, but their too scared to tell it to your
face, they know you will make that personal. The professionals, well most of
them anyway, wont either. They dont like putting the beginners down, theyve
been there they know how it feels. They will tell you good job, but keep
shooting. Those endless workshops, talks, meets, seminars all help but they
never really tell you how to make money. Here is where many quit or just say I
shoot for fun.

If you havent
quit by now, you probably have sacrificed too much to look back. So for every
self-doubting moment you have, passion will always be the overcoming emotion.
So you shoot, shoot for free, they will have pity on you and offer you tea, the
next free shoot they will offer you lunch, the next transport, the next phone
credit, but you dont mind its a learning curve, exploitation becomes an
experience. From experience comes lessons in business. You are barely getting
by always mad at people who want it for free, clients who didnt like what you
took because you missed one moment out of the many you didnt, self-doubt pours
in again, but you keep on because you have come that far.All youre hoping for
is that one day, that one client will come so you keep on.

I really wanted
to write on the rosy or emotional story on how I began my photography journey
until today, but I realized that would probably not be as rosy, so I decided to
write to what we go through every day. This has been my story of photography,
still is. I quit all the time, but I try to feed myself with good photos,
people with passion and an obsession with being like the people I look up to,
that keeps me going. I see it in my friends who are my fellow photographers
many I cannot tell to just keep on but I hope they can read this and keep on.
Youre not alone.